Address exchange systems and methods

ABSTRACT

A product exchange system comprising a controller and a memory coupled to the controller. The controller is configured to: provide an application programing interface configured to receive a delivery request from a first user for delivery of an item, wherein the delivery request includes an identifier of a second user, and wherein the API is configured not to receive a physical address of the second user; in response to receiving the delivery request, access a data storage system that stores an association between the identifier and the second user, and further stores one or more permission settings associated with the second user defining delivery requests to allow in response to receipt of the identifier from the first user or in response to receipt of one of the item and product characteristic; and, in response to receipt of the delivery request, tests the permission settings.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of priority to U.S. ProvisionalApplication No. 62/638,362 filed Mar. 5, 2018, comprises acontinuation-in-part application of and claims the benefit of priorityto U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/245,243 filed Jan. 10, 2019 andU.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/244,096 filed Jan. 9, 2019, each ofwhich comprises a continuation-in-part application and claims thebenefit of priority to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/652,370 filedJul. 18, 2017, which is a continuation application of and claims thebenefit of priority to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/681,356 filedApr. 8, 2015, which is a continuation application of and claims thebenefit of priority to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/016,099 filedAug. 31, 2013, which claims the benefit of priority to U.S. ProvisionalApplication No. 61/697,824 filed on Sep. 7, 2012, and comprises acontinuation-in-part and claims the benefit of priority to U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 14/801,521 filed Jul. 16, 2015, which claims thebenefit of priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/025,460 filedJul. 16, 2014, each of which is also incorporated by reference in itsentirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present subject matter relates generally to systems and methods foran online identification to a physical address exchange platform.

In today's society, people are identified by a plethora of identifiersincluding their name, social security number, bank account number,residential address, password, birth date, and email address, amongothers. These forms of identity management are often “validated” byvarious regulated government organizations. As a result, these forms ofidentity management are reliable and useful for “real-life” offlinetransactions. By contrast, in the digital/online world, most onlineidentities are based on unregulated and self-controlled parameters suchas email address, mobile phone number, social media identities (e.g.,Facebook identity, LinkedIn identity), etc. There is a need for a systemthat connects these two worlds in a meaningful way.

Because many identifiers are confidential information, most peopleprefer to keep their information private. However, individuals arecontinually asked to share their identifiers with third parties, forexample, by providing a mailing address to a third party or by providinga billing address when purchasing an item online. However, it may beunsafe to share identifiers, such as a physical address, with unknownindividuals. Moreover, the more confidential information an individualdiscloses, the more likely the person will be subjected to privacychallenges.

During a typical transaction, a sender selects an item from a retailer'swebsite to send to a receiver. During checkout, the sender must inputhis or her name, the billing address of the buyer, gift options, thename of the receiver, the address of the receiver, and the phone numberof the receiver. Based on the large amount of required information, manysenders decide not to complete the purchase owing to either not havingthe time to complete the checkout process or because the sender may nothave all of the receiver's personal information. For example, the sendermay not have the physical address of the recipient and, perhaps, doesnot feel comfortable asking for such personal information from thereceiver. In addition, physical addresses change often such that it isdifficult for senders to track the changes in address in order todetermine the most current address to use as the mailing address.

From a recipient's perspective, providing his or her residential addressis not safe. In addition, updating a change of address is often a timeconsuming and laborious process. Typically, a recipient must updatetheir address information in each organization. For example, a recipientmust update their address with the post office, department of motorvehicle, internal revenue service, energy company, magazinesubscriptions, place of employment, among a multitude of others.

In addition, conventional systems do not take into account therecipient's preference in shipping location. For example, a recipientmay want certain packages sent from friends to be mailed to his or herhome address, whereas the recipient may want to gifts from colleagues tobe mailed to his or her work address.

Further, the rise of online shopping has led to an increase in shippingand logistics-related issues of delivery of online purchases. It hasalso led to an increased cost of digital and direct marketing, and asignificant decrease in brick and mortar retail as well as storeoperations costs. There has also been a loss in commission charges ontransactions accrued by brokers and agents, which are avoided throughonline purchasing. Product discovery has become easier, product reviewshave become important, and competition has grown. In some instances,consumers have seen lower prices over time, and, with so many optionsavailable, sellers are under pressure to provide the best price. Everybest price guarantee comes with multiple terms and conditions, making itdifficult to compare offers on equal footing. Every consumer wants bestprice, but it has become increasingly difficult to find.

Often direct marketing companies send random offers or coupons orsamples to their database list. However, many of these samples don'treach right recipient because of the use of a wrong or old address.Further, sometimes these samples or offers may not be relevant forconsumers who receive them but could be very relevant to some of theconsumer's connections (friends, relatives, or other relationships), butare unable to refer to them as they may not have their addresses at thetime of referral. Conventional systems also fail to take advantage ofsocial media connections, therefore, missing a valuable marketopportunity. Further, the brands must absorb the costs associated withfailed direct marketing attempts, increasing the end cost to theconsumer. Traditional direct marketing also creates hurdles for brandsby requiring brand to track consumer behavior, location, frequentlyvisited locations, frequently purchased items, and other details usingGPS-based mobile applications, digital cookies, discount offers,location-based offers, and other data.

Further, consumers are typically nervous to broadcast their needs,demands, and requirements online or otherwise in public for the fear oflosing privacy and also because such broadcasting may result inoverwhelming unsolicited contact (e.g., calls, mail, email, etc.). Withbetter targeted connections between sellers and buyers, there areopportunities to eliminate middle men to more efficiently reduce thecost of the product to consumers.

Additionally, the use of a physical mailing address requires consumersto update residential addresses with businesses and government entities,including ecommerce stores, physical stores, credit card companies,gyms, club memberships, coffee shops, airlines, magazine subscriptions,hospitals, banks, and the United States Postal Service. This process ofupdating a mailing address with each entity separately becomes complexand time-consuming. Further, with the growth of internationaltransactions, many parties have difficulty with inconsistent addressformatting and language barriers, requiring a lot of effort and creatingunnecessary delays. Local governments of growing cities and towns alsoexperience challenges with defining addresses in terms of street number,street name, unit number, province or district, county, zip codes, andother address details, requiring community members to update recordsupon local changes to the system. In some cases, those updates arerequired frequently.

Accordingly, there is a need for systems and methods directed to anaddress system that does not jeopardize an individual's privacyinformation while considering a recipient's preferences.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present disclosure provides systems and methods for an addressexchange platform. Various examples of the systems and methods areprovided herein.

The present address exchange system is a technology platform thatmanages and provides confidential information, such as a residentialaddress, to third party merchants, retailers, and shipping companies.The present system provides various integration points with third partycompanies, such as retailers, merchants, shipping companies, governmentagencies, financial institutions, or any other organization thatcollects and uses an address of its members. In one example, the addressexchange system receives an email address of an intended recipient froma sender and provides a physical address of a receiver based on thesubmitted email address of the receiver. In other words, the systemallows senders to send packages and gifts to receivers based only on thesender providing a receiver's identification, such as the receiver'semail address or phone number, thereby maintaining the confidentialnature of a physical address.

In an embodiment, the address exchange system comprises a memory coupledto the controller, wherein the memory is configured to store programinstructions executable by the controller. In response to executing theprogram instructions, the controller is configured to provide an APIconfigured to receive an identifier from a user and further configurednot to receive a physical address from the user, wherein the userprovides an item for shipment to the physical address.

In response to receiving the identifier, the controller is furtheradapted to request the physical address from a data storage systemwherein the data storage system stores an association between theidentifier and the physical address, and retrieve the physical addressand calculate an actual shipping cost based on the physical address.

In an example, the system further stores one or more permission settingsdefining situations in which the physical address is to be provided inresponse to receipt of the identifier. In an example, in response toreceipt of the identifier, the data storage system tests the permissionsettings to determine whether or not to provide the associated physicaladdress.

The determination as to whether or not to provide the associatedphysical address may further include verifying a password associatedwith the physical address, wherein the data storage system furtherstores a password linked to the associated identifier and physicaladdress.

The permission settings may include one or more domains to which thephysical address may be provided when the identifier is received fromthe one or more domains. Alternatively, or in addition to, thepermission settings may include a setting requiring the data storagesystem to request and receive approval to provide the associatedphysical address via a direct communication made according to apredefined communication protocol.

The predefined communication protocol may be an email message, an SMSmessage, a phone call, a mobile application communication, orcombinations thereof.

In an example, the user interface may be provided within an ecommerceplatform and/or an online shipping platform.

In another embodiment, the address exchange system comprises a memorycoupled to the controller, wherein the memory is configured to storeprogram instructions executable by the controller. In response toexecuting the program instructions, the controller is configured toprovide a data storage system storing an association between anidentifier and a physical address and further storing one or morepermission settings defining situations in which the physical address isto be provided in response to receipt of the identifier. The controlleris further configured to receive a request to provide the physicaladdress, wherein the request includes the identifier. In response toreceiving a request to provide the physical address, the data storagesystem tests the permission settings to determine whether or not toprovide the associated physical address.

The request to provide the physical address may be received from an API,wherein the API is configured to receive an identifier from the user andfurther configured not to receive the physical address from the user.The request to provide the physical address may further include apassword.

The determination as to whether or not to provide the associatedphysical address may further include verifying the password, wherein thedata storage system further stores a password linked to the associatedidentifier and physical address.

The permission settings may include one or more domains to which thephysical address may be provided when the request to provide thephysical address is received from the one or more domains. Thepermission settings may include a setting requiring the data storagesystem to request and receive approval to provide the associatedphysical address via a direct communication made according to apredefined communication protocol.

The predefined communication protocol may be an email message, an SMSmessage, a phone call, a mobile application communication, orcombinations thereof.

For example, a platform may be provided that enables users to map theirregulated/validated offline identifiers to their online identifiers. Forexample, users may map validated offline identifiers such as any one ormore of their name, social security number, bank account number,residential address, password, birth date, and email address, amongothers to their online/digital identifiers such as any one or more ofemail address, mobile phone number, social media identities, etc. Byfirst identifying themselves to the platform using a validated identityand then mapping that validated identity to the online/digitalidentities, users provide the backbone structure that then enables theplatform to map online relationships to offline relationships, which inturn enables augmented transactions requiring reliance on validatedidentities to be performed through the use of online/digital identities.

Once a user's online and offline identities have been mapped,relationships between those identities can be mapped. For example,online/digital relationships are often defined by “Facebook Friends,”“LinkedIn Connections,” “Twitter Followers,” “WhatsApp Buddies,” etc.,while offline relationships are defined by friends, family, businessacquaintances, colleagues, classmates, etc. While it is generallyacceptable and desirable to extend one's online connections openly andbroadly, it is much less acceptable to be as open with one's offlinedetails.

When a user provides one or more validated offline identities to theplatform and then maps those identities to the related online/digitalidentities, the platform can then map the online and offlinerelationships and enable users to communicate openly using their onlineidentities while maintaining the security of their offline information.Moreover, a user's connection to another user though one online platform(e.g., a social media platform) may be used to make connections in asecond online platform, without the users actually connecting in thesecond online platform. As a result, real world, offline transactions,can be enabled through the platform leveraging the convenience andaccessibility of the online world to empower offline transactions.

For example, shipments of goods can be made to a residential address byproviding the platform with an email address. A first user can map hisonline and offline addresses, a second user can purchase a gift for thefirst user from a retailer, and rather than provide a mailing addressfor the first user, the second user can simply provide the first user'semail address, and the platform can securely communicate the appropriateshipping information to the retailer. This example may appear even morepowerful by noting that despite not having mailing addresses for themajority of contacts in one's mobile phone, the platform provided hereinenables users to ship offline goods to offline addresses using theinformation that is in fact stored in the contacts in a mobile phone(i.e., phone numbers and email addresses). Similarly, rather than simplywishing a friend happy birthday through Facebook, through the platform auser can send an offline gift to another Facebook user using only theFacebook identity and without Facebook having access to either user'soffline information.

In another example, using the platform, a first user may map hisFacebook identity with his offline identity, including his mailingaddress. The first user may be connected to a second user throughLinkedIn, but not through Facebook. The second user may wish to use thefirst user's online/digital identity to send a gift to the first userfrom an online retailer. Although the first user hasn't mapped hisLinkedIn identity to his offline identity, the platform can identifythat the first and second users are connected via LinkedIn, can identifythe first user's mailing address because the first user has mapped hismailing address and his Facebook identity (which is mapped to hisLinkedIn identity), and can authorize providing the mailing address tothe retailer based on the first user's preferences settings (i.e.,“enable LinkedIn connections to send gifts to my residential addresswithout sharing my residential address with my LinkedIn connections”).Now, all of a user's online relationships may be mapped to his or heroffline identity through a single secure platform.

As shown, the preferences settings within the platform may be used toallow or restrict functionality within the platform such as enablingcertain types of connections to make use of certain types of offlineinformation while preventing the use of other types of offlineinformation. For example, a user may wish to enable gifting by socialmedia connections, but may have much more restricted access tofunctionality based on banking details. There are countless variationsthat will be readily understood by those skilled in the art based on thedisclosures provided herein.

The platform enables augmented transactions and functionality in fraudprevention (e.g., businesses can rely on online identities being mappedto offline identities), contact address management, improvedfunctionality of dating websites and apps, personal and business mailingaddress management, mobile commerce, gifting, product sample requests,etc.

A primary example of augmenting a transaction based on mappedrelationships relies on an address exchange system. While used as aprimary example, it is understood that the examples provided withrespect to an address exchange system are applicable across numerousverified identification-based exchange platforms. For example, ratherthan providing an online identifier to securely communicate an offlineaddress, the platform may be used to provide an online identifier tosecurely communicate banking details, social security numbers, etc.

It is contemplated that the systems and methods described herein may beimplemented in various use cases. One such case is integration withdating sites. For example, a user on a dating site may set up a profileincluding a public profile and a private profile, wherein the profilesinclude public and private wish lists and/or preferences. For example, awoman's public profile may include information such as where she likesto dine, her favorite colors and flowers, her hobbies, where she likesto travel, etc. Her private profile may include further details such asher shoe size, her clothing size, first date ideas, etc. As shown, theprivate information may be very relevant information for a suitor, butwould not typically be shared on a public site due to privacy concerns.

Then, when a potential date visits the user's profile page, the systemallows the potential date to view the public profile and/or the privateprofile based on the system settings. For example, the private profilemay only be accessible to premium members. Or the private profile mayonly be available to specific people selected/approved by the user. Orthe private profile may only be available to people that meet other useror system defined criteria. In still other scenarios, the privateprofile is never accessible to other system users, but it is availableto third-party merchants, as described further below.

For example, a suitor may visit the woman's public profile and see thatshe likes shoes and see the retailer through which she likes to buy hershoes. The suitor may then, through the system, choose to buy shoes forthe woman from the retailer. The suitor need only select to purchaseshoes, choose a price range, and choose the recipient. The system thenshares the private profile information (in this case including thewoman's preferred style of shoe, her preferred color, and her sizeinformation) with the retailer, but not with the suitor. The system mayfurther share the woman's delivery information with the retailer, butnot with the suitor. Thus, the suitor can purchase a gift that will bewell received, but not be given any of the woman's sensitiveinformation.

An advantage of the present systems and methods is mapping online andoffline relationships to enable augmented transactions.

An advantage of the present systems and methods is providing a solutionto the challenge of sending gifts or packages without knowing therecipient's address. Similarly, the system does not require a recipientto disclose his or her residential address to third parties orstrangers.

A further advantage of the present systems and methods is providing asafe and secure way of mapping online and offline identifications,wherein the identifications may be used in various applications.

Yet another advantage of the present systems and methods is allowingmerchants to focus on their core business, instead of spending time andmoney directed to determining a correct address for shipments andtracking lost packages.

A further advantage of the present systems and methods is distilling theprocess to the core participants and components, including the productmanufacturer and the delivery channels, while eliminating brokers,agents, and marketplaces.

Another advantage of the present systems and methods is providing asingle platform to map online and offline identifications, therebyavoiding multiple registrations with each merchant of users' physicalmailing address.

A further advantage of the present systems and methods is providing moreefficient commerce and shipping solutions, including ecommercesolutions.

Another advantage of the present system is enabling retailers tocomplete more transactions and focus on their primary business insteadof spending time and resources devoted to obtaining and trackingphysical addresses.

Additional objects, advantages and novel features of the examples willbe set forth in part in the description which follows, and in part willbecome apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of thefollowing description and the accompanying drawings or may be learned byproduction or operation of the examples. The objects and advantages ofthe concepts may be realized and attained by means of the methodologies,instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in theappended claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The drawing figures depict one or more implementations in accord withthe present concepts, by way of example only, not by way of limitations.In the figures, like reference numerals refer to the same or similarelements.

FIG. 1 is a schematic of an embodiment of the address exchange system.

FIG. 2 is a schematic of an embodiment of the address exchange system inrelation to a sender and receiver.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram including an embodiment of the address exchangesystem.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram including an embodiment of the address exchangesystem.

FIG. 5 is an example of a screen shot of a check out interface includingan option to enter the receiver's email address.

FIG. 6 is a schematic of another embodiment of the address exchangesystem in relation to a sender and receiver.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring to FIGS. 1-6, the present application discloses an addressexchange system that standardizes and globalizes a unique addressmechanism for all enabling transactions and communications between userswithout the disclosure of the recipient's physical mailing address tothe sender. The address exchange system provides a unique digitalidentification, such as a phone number or an email address, that becomesthe primary, universal identification of each user. By replacing thephysical mailing with a digital identification, the system simplifiestransactions between two or more parties by enabling the shipment ofproducts without needing a traditional mailing or GPS address. Astechnology has evolved to make international transactions more common,the use of a digital identification helps to avoid problems arising frommultiple language and address formatting inconsistences as well asproblems arising in communities experiencing significant growth withchanges in land development and urban planning.

The present disclosure provides an address exchange system 10 comprisinga memory 12 coupled to the controller 14, wherein the memory isconfigured to store program instructions executable by the controller14, as shown in FIG. 1. In response to executing the programinstructions, the controller 14 is configured to provide an API 16configured to receive an identifier 19 from a user 15 and furtherconfigured not to receive a physical address 18 from the user, whereinthe user 15 provides an item for shipment to the physical address 18.While the address exchange system 10 of the description provided hereinmay be used to exchange address information, it is understood that thesystem 10 may also be used to exchange products and other information.The user 15 may be any person or entity. In the majority of examples inthe present application, the user 15 is a retailer, merchant, orshipping entity. For example, in FIGS. 2-4, the user 15 is a retailer orshipping entity. However, the user 15 is not limited to retailers andshipping entities, but includes any organization, entity, or person thatuses a unique identifier to provide a physical mailing address. Asdescribed in greater detail below, the system helps consumers to make arequest (such as an offer to purchase) and helps brands selling tangibleand intangible goods (such as consumer brands, hotels, travel,insurance, cars, or any other product) to bid for consumers business.

Further, the physical mailing address may be any identifiable location,including a postal address or a geo code based on metrics such aslongitude, latitude, and elevation determined by the Global PositioningSystem (GPS), a geographic information system (GIS), geographiccoordinates, or other services. In a further embodiment, a user mayupload one or more photos of each physical address or delivery locationassociated with a delivery location profile so that a third-partydelivery company or the party delivering the item to understand theexact location for the delivery to improve efficiency and accuracy. Thedelivery location profile may be shared with third-party shippingcompanies and any other party (seller, vendor, brand, other user, etc.)as authorized by the user.

In a further embodiment, in response to executing the programinstructions, the controller 14 is configured to provide an APIconfigured to receive an online identifier 19 and an action request 23from the sender 32. In response to receiving the online identifier 19and the action request 23, the controller 14 may access a data storagesystem 22 that stores an association between the online identifier 19and one or more offline identifiers 21 related to the receiver 30, andfurther may store one or more permission settings defining actionrequests 23 to allow in response to receipt of the online identifier 19.The controller 14 may test the permission settings to determine whetheror not to allow the action request 23. In an embodiment, the testing ofthe permission settings includes determining whether there is arelationship between the first user and the second user in a socialmedia platform 48. Non-limiting example relationships include Facebookfriends, LinkedIn connections, and Instagram followers. In addition tothird party social network services such as Facebook and LinkedIn, thesocial media platform 48 may receive digital identifications of thereceiver 32 and other users from the sender 32 that specify arelationship such as “friend” or “family.” In this example, thecontroller 14 may test the permission settings by determining whetherthere is a relationship (e.g., “friend” or “family”) between the digitalidentifications of the first user and the second user on the socialmedia platform 48. For purposes of this description, such digitalidentifications identifying relationships between users without using athird party social services network are considered relationships on thesocial media platform 48.

Each of the online identifier 19 and the action request 23 may relate toa second user. For example, the online identifier 19 may be an emailaddress, a mobile phone number, or a username on a social mediaplatform. The action request 23 may be a request to request to providean offline identifier 21 of the second user to a retailer 15 to enableproduct exchanging between the first user and the second user withoutsharing the second user's personal information with the first user. Forexample, the first user may send a gift, a sample, or a product to thesecond user without the learning the physical address of the seconduser. Alternatively, or in addition to, the action request 23 may be arequest to access the second user's personal information stored in thedata storage 22.

FIG. 2 illustrates the interplay between the address exchange system 10and a sender 32, a user 15, and a receiver 30. For example, the sender32 may be a person that selects a gift from goods sold by a user 15(e.g., retailer), and desires the user 15 to ship the gift to theintended receiver 30. In another example, the sender 32 may be the sameperson or entity as the receiver 30, such as when a person buys andships an item to himself or herself. The user 15 (e.g., retailer)interacts with the controller 14 via the API 16. The API 16 isconfigured to receive an identifier 19 from the user 15, and furtherconfigured not to receive the physical address 18 from the user 15. Inother words, system 10 allows a sender 32 to send a shipment based onthe identifier 19 of the receiver 30. In another example, the sender 32interacts with the controller 14 via the API, and the API is configuredto receive an online identifier 19 from the sender 32. In a stillfurther embodiment, the controller 14 may communicate with one or moresocial media platforms 48 to request and receive validation of arelationship between the first user and the second user in a socialmedia platform 48, such as Facebook friends, LinkedIn connections, andInstagram followers.

Although throughout this disclosure the receiver 30 is identified by therecipient identifier 19 of an email address 20, it should be understoodthat any suitable identifier 19 may be used. For example, identifier 19may be a telephone number associated with the intended receiver 30,wherein the telephone number is associated with the physical address 18.Telephone numbers are standard across countries and thereforewell-suited for use as the digital identification in the system,although any form or type of digital identification may be used.Similarly, the identifier 19 may be a social network identification ofthe receiver 30, wherein the social network identification is associatedwith the physical address 18 of the receiver 30. In other words, thecontroller 14 may be configured to receive any identifier 19 of thereceiver 30 that is associated with the receiver's 30 physical address18, including, but not limited to, an email address 20, social networkidentification, phone number, or any other unique identifier, orcombinations thereof. Further, it should be understood that theidentifier 19 may be associated with other address types, not justphysical addresses 18. For example, the identifier may be associated toan electronic address for a receiver 30 to receive electronic gifts orother communications. As a result, the system 10 enables a receiver 30to receive an electronic gift from a sender 32 without disclosing thereceiver's 30 electronic address to the sender 32.

In an example, the sender 32 submits an online identifier 19 of thereceiver 30 (e.g., a Facebook username) and the item to be shipped(e.g., a pair of shoes) to the controller 14. The controller 14 firstdetermines an association of the online identifier 19 with one or moreoffline identifiers 21, such as a physical address 18 and validates therelationship of the sender 32 and the receiver 30 on a social mediaplatform 48. The controller 14 then provides the online identifier 19(e.g., the Facebook username) and the item to be shipped (e.g., theshoes) to the user 15 (an online retailer). The user 15 coordinates theshipment of the shoes to the receiver 30 through the use of the API 16and the controller 14 as described above.

In a further example, the sender 32 may submit an online identifier 19,such as a mobile phone number, and a request to access personalinformation regarding the receiver 32, such as banking information,stored in the data storage system 22. The second user may permitdifferent levels of access to the personal information based on profilesettings associated with a profile on a social media platform 48. Forexample, the second user may allow Facebook friends that have “familymember” status to access banking information while Facebook friendsrelated by school do not have such access.

In another embodiment, the system 10 provides a single platform in whicha sender 32 may submit an identifier 19 associated with an intendedreceiver 30 in order to send a shipment or gift to the receiver 30without necessarily the sender 32 and the receiver 30 being connected ina social network. For example, a sender 32 may know an email identifier19 of a receiver 30 based on a connection in a first social network, andthe system 10 may provide a gift to the receiver 30 in a second socialnetwork, notwithstanding the sender 32 and receiver 30 may not beconnected in the second social network. Further, the system 10 mayprovide a gift to the receiver 30 through a second social network, suchas an electronic gift, notwithstanding the sender 32 and receiver 30 maynot be connected in the second social network.

In one example, a sender 32 (e.g., consumer, buyer, purchaser, company,brand, etc.) selects an item for shipment to a physical address 18through a checkout interface 17 that is in communication with the user15. The checkout interface 17 and/or the API 16 may be provided withinan ecommerce platform or product, as well as an online shippingplatform. For example, the sender 32 may provide the identifier 19associated with the intended receiver 30 of the item to the checkoutinterface 17. The user 15 may then provide the email address 20 to thecontroller 14 via the API 16. Merchants or sellers can bid throughAPI's, or any other channel, to accept, counteroffer, or chargeconsumers or receivers.

In addition to providing the identifier 19 of the receiver 30 to thecontroller 14, the user 15 may also provide information associated withthe sender 32. For example, the user 15 may provide identification ofthe sender and transaction details associated with the item beingpurchased and/or shipped. The identification of the sender 32 mayinclude a name, email address, telephone number, address, social networkidentification, or any other suitable identification of the sender 32.The transaction details may include the retailer or store the item ispurchased or shipped, the content of the item being shipped, the timeframe of the shipping dates, among other information. In other words,the controller 14 may be configured to provide an API 16 configured toreceive an identifier 19 associated with the receiver 30, anidentification associated with the sender 32, and transaction detailsassociated with the item, and further configured not to receive aphysical address 18 from the user, wherein the sender 32 provides anitem for shipment to the physical address 18.

In response to receiving the identifier 19, the controller 14 is furtheradapted to request the physical address 18 from a data storage system 22wherein the data storage system 22 stores an association between theidentifier 19 and the physical address 18. The data storage system 22may be any suitable storage system, for example, a database. The datastorage system 22 may be located within the controller 12 or locatedexternally from the controller 12. In an example, the data storagesystem 22 is located externally from the system 10, wherein the datastorage system 22 is wirelessly accessible by the controller 12. It isunderstood that the data storage system 22 may be a third party datasystem, such as a USPS database 22, an online retailer's database 22,etc.

The data storage system 22 may further store one or more permissionsettings 24 defining situations in which the physical address 18 is tobe provided in response to receipt of the identifier 19. The permissionsettings 24 may include one or more domains to which the physicaladdress 18 may be provided when the identifier 19 is received from theone or more domains. For example, the permission settings 24 may be setsuch that, if the identifier 19 is received from a certain user 15, suchas a specific person or website associated with a certain retailer, thenthe controller 14 is authorized to provide the physical address 18 tothat specific person or retailer. The permission settings 24 may includeproviding the identification of the sender 32 and transaction detailsassociated with the item being received.

Alternatively, or in addition to, the permission settings 24 may includea setting requiring the data storage system 22 to request and receiveapproval to provide the associated physical address 18 via a directcommunication made according to a predefined communication protocol 28.For example, the approval may be dependent on the identification of thesender 32 as well as the transaction details. In other words, thepermission settings 24 may include granting permission if the request isfrom a certain sender 32. However, the permission settings 24 mayinclude denying permission to receive the item if the transactiondetails indicate the item is flowers, for example, if the receiver 30has allergies.

The predefined communication protocol 28 may be an email message, an SMSmessage, a phone call, a mobile application communication, such as amobile app to app communication, or combinations thereof. For example,the permission settings 24 may be set such that the controller 14 isconfigured to send an email to a person or entity (e.g., receiver 30)associated with the physical address 18 requesting permission to providethe physical address 18 to the user 15, for example, a merchant orshipping company. Further, the permission settings 24 may be customizedby the receiver 30 via an API to manage the privacy and settings for thereceiver 30 and sender 32, wherein the API 16 is in communication withthe controller 14, as shown in FIG. 2.

In response to receipt of the identifier 19, the data storage system 22tests the permission settings 24 to determine whether or not to providethe associated physical address 18. For example, if the permissionsettings 24 include sending an SMS message, then the controller 14 sendsan SMS message requesting authority to provide the physical address 18to the user 15. If authority is granted, then the controller 14 providesthe physical address 18 to the user 15. As understood by one skilled inthe art, the identifier 19 and/or the physical address 18 may beencrypted when sent and decrypted when received.

The permission settings 24 may be set such that the controller 14 isconfigured to receive and verify a password 26 in order to provide thephysical address 18 to the user 15. Further, the determination as towhether or not to provide the associated physical address 18 may furtherinclude verifying the password 26, wherein the data storage system 22further stores the password 26 linked to the associated email address 20and physical address 18. In other words, in addition to requestingauthority from a person or entity associated with the physical address18, the controller 14 may be configured to request and confirm apassword 26 associated with the physical address, before authority isreceived or denied.

The system may include a secure log-in or a multi-factor authenticationmodule to ensure that receivers are not receive mail from “fake”senders. The multi-factor authentication may include steps to beperformed via email, SMS, and telephone, and may be automaticallyinitiated if the sender is unknown or does not know the receiver'saddress.

Although throughout the description, the example of the controller 14receiving an identifier 19 from the user 15 and providing an associatedphysical address 18 to the user 15 is used, it should be understood thatother methods of providing the physical address 18 are contemplatedwithin this disclosure. For example, upon receiving an identifier 19 andobtaining the associated physical address 18 from the data storagesystem 22, the physical address 18 may be provided to the user 15 intext form or as a code, such as bar code or QR code, or any otherencrypted manner. When user 15 is a retailer, for example, the physicaladdress 18 is provided to the user 15 in the form of a shipping labelincluding a bar code or QR code, the physical address 18 remainsconfidential and may not be disclosed to the user 15.

In a further embodiment, the system may utilize a third-party shippingcompany to ship the product from the seller to the user in order toavoid disclosure of the receiver's physical address to the seller. Thesystem generates a each unique transaction code that is unique to eachtransaction and shared with each party involved in the transaction. Athird-party shipping company may obtain the unique transaction codegenerated by the system from the seller or another party involved withthe transaction, and scan the code within the system in order toretrieve the shipping address. In this embodiment, the seller does nothave access to the receiver's personal information. This embodimentprevents sellers from using shipping details from a first purchase (suchas through eBay or Amazon) to directly reach out to the customer toupsell or cross-sell products, offer additional discounts, providecatalogs, or for any other purpose.

As shown in FIG. 3, a sender 32 provides an email address 20 of theintended receiver 30 to the user 15 (e.g., retailer/shipping entity). Ofcourse, any form of communication identification of the intendedrecipient is contemplated, including, but not limited to, social mediaidentification, phone number, email address, among others. The user 15then sends the email address 20 to the controller 14, via the API 16.The controller 14 sends an email (or other communication protocol 28;not shown) to the receiver 30 requesting permission to send the physicaladdress 18 to the user 15. If the receiver 30 grants the request, thecontroller 14 accesses the data storage system 22 and obtains thephysical address 18 that corresponds to the email address 20, andprovides the physical address 18 to the user 15 (e.g., retailer/shippingentity). Importantly, the physical address 18 is not provided to thesender 32. Instead, the physical address 18 remains confidential andonly sent to the user 15, such as a retailer or shipping entity, forshipping purposes.

In one example, a sender 32 provides to the user 15 three pieces ofinformation: an identifier of the intended receiver (e.g., emailaddress, social media contact, phone number, etc.), an identification ofthe sender 32, and transaction details surrounding the item selected bythe sender 32. The user 15 then provides the identification of thesender 32 and the transaction details to the receiver 30 for permissionto provide the user 15 with the physical address 18 associated with thereceiver 30. In yet another example, the sender 32 may provide anidentifier of the intended receiver along with a geographical areaassociated with the recipient, such as a region of the country, state,town, municipality, or neighborhood, among others. Such geographicalarea can be used to calculate the estimated shipping and/or tax coststhat can be communicated to the user for payment.

In addition, the user 15 is separate and distinct from the addressexchange system 10. In other words, one of the main purposes of theaddress exchange system 10 is to confidentially supply physicaladdresses to users 15, such as merchants and shipping companies. Theaddress exchange system 10 is not included within a retailer or shippingcompany. In other words, the address exchange system 10 is anindependent entity from the user 15.

In one example, if a sender 32 selects an item for shipment to aphysical address 18, wherein the identifier 19 is not contained in thedata storage system 12, the controller 14 may be configured to send anemail or other communication to the person or entity associated with theidentifier 19 requesting, not only permission to provide the physicaladdress 18, but the content of the physical address 18. Further, thecontroller 14 may be configured to send an email to the person or entityassociated with the identifier 19 requesting authority to store an emailaddress 20 and associated physical address 18 in the data storage system22.

For example, in FIG. 4 the sender 32 sends an email address 20 of thereceiver 30 to the user 15 (e.g., retailer/shipping company) via thecheckout interface 17, wherein the user 15 sends the email address 20 tothe controller 14. The controller 14 may determine the email address 20is not included in the data storage system 22, at which point thecontroller 14 may send an email invitation to the email address 20requesting permission to store the email address 20 and an associatedphysical address 18 in the data storage system 22. If the receiver 30registered the email address 20 and physical address 18 in the datastorage system 22, the controller 14 provides the physical address 18 tothe user 15.

In addition, FIG. 4 depicts a situation in which, upon receipt of anemail address 20 not contained in the data storage system 22, thecontroller 14 is configured to request a zip code from the receiver 30,along with an invitation to register the receiver's 30 email address 20and physical address 18 in the data storage system 22. Onceauthorization and the zip code is received from the receiver 30, the zipcode may be used to estimate and provide a maximum shipping charge tothe sender 32. If the user 15 receives confirmation from the sender 32to proceed with the shipment based on the estimated charge, thetransaction may be completed. Subsequently, the receiver 30 may providethe physical address 18 and complete registration. Once the physicaladdress 18 is received, the controller 14 may then provide an exactshipping cost and sales tax to the user 15. The user 15 may thenreimburse the sender 32 for any overage charges in the shipping and taxcosts. If the email address 20 that is contained in the data storagesystem 22 is received by the controller 14, the address exchange system10 may immediately calculate the shipping costs and sales tax for thesender 32 to confirm before completing the purchase.

In another example, upon receipt of an email address 20, the controller14 is configured to request a zip code from the receiver 30. If thereceiver 30 is not registered, the controller 14 indicates to the user15 that the zip code is not available. The user 15 then calculates themaximum shipping cost and maximum sales tax to complete the transaction.After the transaction is complete, the controller is configured torequest registration from the receiver 30, wherein registration includessubmitting a physical address 18 associated with the email address 20 ofthe receiver, to be stored in the data storage system 22. Uponregistration, the controller is configured to supply the user 15 withthe physical address 18 of the receiver 30 such that the user 15 maycalculate the exact sales tax and shipping cost, wherein the sales taxand shipping costs are based on the zip code of the receiver 30. Theuser 15 may then reimburse the sender 32 for any overcharged amount fromthe initial charged amount based on the maximum shipping and sales taxcosts. Alternatively, if the receiver 30 is registered (i.e., the emailaddress 20 is included in the data storage system 22), the controllermay immediately send the zip code of the receiver 30 to the user 15, inorder for the user 15 to calculate the sales tax and shipping costs,which will be presented to the sender 30. The sender 32 may then decideto submit the purchase of the item to be sent to the receiver 30.

In another embodiment, the address exchange system 10 comprises a memory12 coupled to the controller 14, wherein the memory 12 is configured tostore program instructions executable by the controller 14. In responseto executing the program instructions, the controller 14 is configuredto provide a data storage system 22 for storing an association betweenan identifier 19 and a physical address 18 and further storing one ormore permission settings 24 defining situations in which the physicaladdress 18 is to be provided in response to receipt of the identifier19. The controller 14 is further configured to receive a request toprovide the physical address 18, wherein the request includes theidentifier 19. In response to receiving a request to provide thephysical address 18, the data storage system 22 tests the permissionsettings 24 to determine whether or not to provide the associatedphysical address 18.

The request to provide the physical address 18 may be received from anAPI 16 through which a user 15 selects an item for shipment to aphysical address 18, wherein the API 16 is configured to receive anidentifier 19 from the user 15 and further configured not to receive thephysical address 18 from the user 15. As described above, the request toprovide the physical address 18 may further include a password 26.

As shown in FIG. 2, the address exchange system 10 may include variousmodules including recommendation services 34, advertisement services 36,address book services 38, social media services 40, sample managementservices 42, alert services 44, permission and privacy settings 46, andgift-receiving preferences 47. Based on a sender's 32 previous purchasesor preferences, the recommendation services 34 may suggest the user 15to promote certain products to the sender 32. For example, if a sender32 has indicated in his preferences that he is interested in fishing,the recommendation service 34 may suggest, with the sender's 32permission, to the user 15 to market fishing products to the sender 32.Similarly, the advertisement services 36 may provide tailoredadvertisements to a sender 32 based on the sender's 32 previouspurchases or the sender's saved preferences. The product preferences 47may include personal information related to the second user 30 such assize information for clothing, belts, and the like and style preferencessuch as handbags, hats, jewelry, brands, colors, and the like. Forexample, the controller 14 may receive a request to coordinate thesending of a video game to the receiver. Prior to communicatinginstructions to the user 15 to send the video game, the controller 14may check the gift-receiving preferences 47 to determine if the receiver30 has requested a specific video game, a brand of video games, and/or avideo game for a specific console.

The address exchange system 10 may also include a sample managementservice 42 that allows senders 32 and receivers 30 to provide authorityto certain retailers to send themselves samples of the retailer'sproducts by simply inputting their email address 20 into a designatedinput in the preference section. While the illustrated examples refer tothe sending of samples, it is contemplated that, as used herein, samplesincludes direct marketing as well as any other shipment, includingshipments such as catalogs, offers, discounts, gifts, or other products.In some instances, a user 15 may indicate to the address exchange system10 that the user 15 needs to distribute a number of samples toappropriate receivers 30. The controller 14 may be configured to thenselect appropriate receivers 30 based on the receiver's preferences andprovide the physical address 18 of all of the appropriate receivers 30to the sender 32 for shipment of the samples. In other words, asdescribed in more detail below, the controller 14 may proactivelyidentify receivers 30 based on the receiver's preferences enabling sucha sender 32 may more easily identify appropriate receivers 30. Forexample, the controller 14 may suggest to a sender 32 who is sendingsamples to receivers 30, which people in the sender's network that aremost likely to also benefit from the product, whether based onpreferences, previous behavior, browser history, etc. One of the goalsof direct marketing is to ensure that consumers and products arematched, as well as provide additional product options to consumers.Through the privacy options and preference settings, the system providesusers with the option to select which types of products and/or brandsthey are open to receiving, limiting the amount of direct marketing toonly items that consumers are truly interested in as well as alleviatingsome of the requirements of consumer tracking and monitoring for brandsto fine-tune direct marketing approaches while also providing feedbackto brands regarding trends and consumer demand. Another advantage ofthis streamlined approach to direct marketing is the reduction ofprinted materials sent to consumers' residential addresses, therebyreducing environmental costs.

In a first instance, a brand may be the sender 32 and an individual canbe the receiver 30 of the sample. Then, in a second instance, thereceiver 30 of the first instance becomes the sender 32 in the secondinstance for one or more new receivers 30. This enables the recipient ofa sample, to then in turn gift equivalent samples to other recipients.Thus it can be seen that in at least some instances, the address is notavailable to the sender 32 at the time of the transaction.

For example, a brand may provide a sample opportunity to the samplemanagement service 42 module (e.g., Sephora may be interested indistributing samples of a shampoo they sell), the sample managementservice 42 module may identify appropriate receivers 30 and distributethe samples to the receivers 30 without sharing the receivers'data/information with Sephora.

In some instances, the brand may receive no information about thereceivers 30, in other instances the brand may receive certain digitalparameters about the receivers 30 (age, gender, etc.), but not theaddress, and in other instances the brand may receive all the details ofthe receivers 30. Such information may be shared with the brand

While primarily described in the context of samples, the samplemanagement service 42 may be a gift management service 42 or similar.Also, by incorporating the other features and functions of the addressexchange system 10, the sample management service 42 does not requirethe sender 32 to know the address of the receiver(s) 30.

As described above, the controller 14 may be configured to then selectappropriate receivers 30 based on the receiver's preferences and providethe physical address 18 of all of the appropriate receivers 30 to thesender 32 for shipment of the samples, gifts, or other products. Thisselection may be an automatic selection and execution of shipment toreceivers 30 or may be a presentation of selected receivers 30 to thesender 32 from which the sender may choose.

The address exchange system 10 may further include an address bookservice 38 that allows senders 32 to manage their contacts by adding,removing, updating, and deleting their contact list via a user interfaceor an API in communication with the controller 14, as shown in FIG. 2.When a sender 32 is ready to checkout online from the user 15, thesender 32 may select an option wherein user 15 may collect informationabout the sender 32 from the address book of the sender 32 such that thesender 32 does not need to provide information about himself or herself.The sender 32 may also provide one or more receivers 30 from the user'saddress book, wherein the address book lists contacts and associatedemail addresses 20. For example, the checkout interface 17 may displayan option requesting access to the sender's 32 address book. The sender32 may also classify the contacts in predefined groups and may haveassociated shipping preferences. For example, the group, “Family &Friends”, may be associated with a shipping preference that indicatesthe controller 14 to provide the receiver's 30 home address, whereas thegroup, “Colleagues”, may have a shipping preference that indicates tothe controller 14 to provide the receiver's 30 work address. Further,the address book service 38 may be in communication with a social mediaservice 40. For example, a sender 32 may import his contacts from asocial networking site into the address book service 38 of the addressexchange system 10.

As discussed above, the address exchange system 10 may include a privacyand permission setting module 46 that allows receivers 30 to programpreferences and privacy and permission settings. The preferred privacyand permission settings may be dependent on each sender 32 or groups,such as “Family & Friends.” In addition, the address exchange system 10may include an alert service 44 that sends a sender 32 or a receiver 30a notification regarding a shipment, a notification of relevantproducts, a message regarding an advertisement, a social media alert,among others. In other embodiments, receivers may add items, products,or brands to a wish list that is monitored by or made available tosenders. Each item on the wish list may include a price expectation orrange, and the system may provide the information to brands whosepricing matches the pricing set in the user's preferences.

As mentioned above, the address exchange system 10 may also include arecommendation service 34 that stores a sender's 32 life stylepreferences, birthdates, wish lists, gift receiving behaviors, andproduct reviews. Various third parties, such as retailers, may use thesender's 32 preference information to provide suitable samples andrecommendations of other products through the sample management service42 and/or the advertisement services 36 of the address exchange system10. For example, the recommendation service 34 may track the receivedproducts and services of the receiver 30 and, upon permission from thereceiver 30, share the behavior information with users 15, such asretailers or merchants. With the behavior information, users 15 (e.g.,retailers and merchants) may be capable of providing real-timerecommendations via the recommendation services 34, advertisements viathe advertisement services 36, and/or offers via the offer managementservices 42, all based on the receiver's 30 activity. Similar services,may be presented to a sender 32 based on the sender's 32 activities.

The receiver 30 may also manage his or her physical address 18 through auser interface or an API in communication with the controller 14. Forexample, if the receiver 30 needs to change or add a physical address18, the receiver 30 may do so by, for example, logging onto his or heraccount within the address exchange system 10. In addition, the addressexchange system 10 may include an update address service that pushes thereceiver's 30 new address to all third-party service providers. Forexample, instead of a receiver 30 contacting each third-party serviceprovider (e.g., financial institution, magazine subscriptions, utilitycompany, internal revenue service, etc.), the address exchange system 10automatically contacts and updates the receiver's 30 address with eachthird-party service provider within the receiver's address book. Theplatform presented herein provides an option for the user to selectivelyand automatically update one or more of the physical addressesassociated with his or her profile or user account. The system alsoallows for users to update time frames for availability to acceptpackages in order to avoid delivery during vacations or other specifictimes.

As mentioned above, the check-out interface 17 and/or the API 16 may beprovided within an ecommerce platform and/or shipping platform. Further,as shown in FIG. 5, the sender 32 may provide an email address 20 duringcheck out. For example, instead of entering in a shipping address, thesender 32 enters the email address 20 of the receiver 30. The associatedphysical address 18 is provided by the address exchange system 10, asdescribed above.

The address exchange system 10 may be integrated within a check-outsystem associated with the user 15 by any suitable manner. For example,the integration may be through a secured, customized API thatfacilitates data flow between a checkout platform of the user 15 and theaddress exchange system 10. Alternatively, an external plugin to thecheckout module from the address exchange system 10 may be provided.Customized extensions may be created for multiple ecommerce platformsand numerous retailers and merchants. The address exchange system 10 mayalso be in communication with a payment provider during check out.

The address exchange system 10 may also include a service that stores areceiver's 30 preferences, birthdates, wish lists, gift receivingbehaviors, and product reviews. For example, the preferences of thereceiver 30 may include the receiver's clothing sizes, shoe size, colorpreference, size of heel preference, type of shirt preference, length ofskirt preference, type of pants preference, among others. As such, upona sender's 32 selection of an item for purchase, the user 15 may accessthe system 10 to receive the receiver's 30 appropriate clothing size. Inan example, the system 10 may provide the user 15 with the correctclothing size in a manner in which the sender 32 does not receive theclothing size, i.e., the clothing size may remain confidential. Areceiver 30 may submit various preferences when the receiver 30registers the receiver's 30 email address 20 (or other identifier 19)with the data storage system 22.

In one example, a sender 32 selects an item for purchase and shipment toa receiver 30. For example, the sender 32 sends an email address 20 ofthe receiver 30 to the user 15 (e.g., retailer/shipping company) via thecheckout interface 17, wherein the user 15 sends the email address 20 tothe controller 14. If the receiver 30 has registered the email address20 and preferences in the data storage system 22, the controller 14provides the preferences to the user 15. The user 15 may then completethe purchase and send, for example, the appropriate sized item to thereceiver 30. As a result, the sender 32 no longer needs to know thepreferences, for example clothing sizes, of a receiver 30 beforepurchasing a gift.

The receiver 30 may maintain a user profile on a social media platform48 that indicates one or more preferences related to items or otherpreference information. For example, the receiver 32 may maintain aprofile on a dating website that specifies her preferred colors andflowers, her restaurant preferences, her clothing sizes, etc. Thecontroller 14 may monitor the receiver's 30 preference information onthe social media platform 48 in addition to the sender 32 and receiver's30 online relationships. When the sender 32 submits the receiver's 30identifier 19 and an item to be shipped to the controller 14, thecontroller 14 may access the receiver's 30 profile on the dating websiteand determine the color and size of the item to be shipped beforesending the information to the user 15 such as an online retailer. In apreferred embodiment, that information would not be shared with thesender 32.

As shown, the system 10 is in direct communication with the searchablestorage structure 22, which, in one example, may be a database. Ofcourse, in other embodiments, the system 10 may be in communication withthe database through a network. While shown and described as a database,it is understood that the database may be any number of databasesadapted to support the necessary data management to support the variousfeatures and functions of the system 10 described herein. It is furthercontemplated that a database, as understood in the traditional sense,may not be a requirement of the system 10 described herein, and that anyother mechanism or mode of data management may be employed.

Turning now to the example of the address exchange system 10 shown inFIG. 6, another embodiment of the address exchange system 10 may includevarious modules including recommendation services 34, advertisementservices 36, address book services 38, social media services 40,automatic transaction management services 48, alert services 44, andpermission and privacy settings 46.

Building on the examples provided above with respect to the samplemanagement service 42 module, the automatic transaction managementservices 48 module may enable various types of automatic transactions,including the automatic execution of offers. Not only may the addressexchange system 10 be adapted to automatically determine receivers 30for whom the sender 32 may provide gifts and/or samples, the addressexchange system 10 be adapted to automatically determine and executeother automatic transactions. As above, in at least some instances, theaddress is not available to the sender 32 at the time of thetransaction. In other examples, the system enables senders toautomatically send items, products, or samples to different addressesbased on sender preferences.

For example, users may set appropriate preferences (e.g., filters)through the permission setting module 46 that enable the transactionmanagement services 48 to automatically execute transactions whencertain conditions are met or to automatically notify users whenconditions are met to suggest a transaction is appropriate.Additionally, consumers or receivers may choose to authorize or to notauthorize the sharing of information, including the physical address,before the transaction. In other embodiments, the details of theconsumer or receiver may be shared only when criteria defined by theconsumer or receiver in the privacy/preferences settings is met.

In one example, a user may set preferences such as pricing and otherfilter controls in the permission and privacy setting module 46 thatindicate types of products (e.g., product categories), specific products(e.g., specific branded product), brands, price points or price ranges,dates or date ranges, addresses, etc. to be used for the transactionmanagement services 48. Then, when the preference preconditions are met,the automatic transaction management services 48 module executes one ormore automatic transactions. In one example, the system automaticallyexecutes a transaction when the seller or sender meets a purchase priceset by a buyer or receiver. In another example, a user sets a deadlinefor a plurality of sellers to compete to complete the sale by eitherbeing the lowest bidder or by meeting the sale price criteriaestablished by the user.

For example, a user may set preferences that indicate the user wouldlike to buy a new laptop, from one of a set of specific brands (e.g.,Dell, Lenovo, or HP), with specific minimum specifications (e.g., 13″screen, 7th generation Intel i7 processor or better, 8 MB RAM or better,etc.), under a given price (e.g., $800), prior to a given date (e.g.,before Nov. 1, 2018). If a brand or retailer makes an offer available tothe automatic transaction management services 48 module that meets thegiven criteria, the automatic transaction management services 48 modulemay automatically execute the transaction on behalf of the receiver 30.Similarly, short of fully executing the transaction, the automatictransaction management services 48 module may simply inform the userthat the stated conditions for purchase have been met, enabling the userto choose whether to execute the transaction. In another example,sellers have the option to provide the lowest price to the consumer. Thesystem may open the deal to sellers and automatically execute thetransaction with the lowest seller when the deal is closed, or,alternatively, may provide the options to the receiver and allow thereceiver to select an option.

The sample management service 42 module and/or the transactionmanagement services 48 module may also be used to enable opt-inreceiving of gift or samples with well-defined specificity. For example,in combination with the permission and privacy setting module 46 withthe transaction management services 48 module (and/or the samplemanagement service 42 module) may enable a user to opt-in to receivefrom certain people, from certain brands, or for certain non-brandspecific products, and at which address to receive such products, etc.For example, a receiver 30 could specify that he or she will receiveProctor and Gamble products from Proctor and Gamble at the receiver'shome address. A receiver 30 could also specify that he or she willreceive vacation packages or mortgage offers from all sellers. Inanother example, a receiver may select a category of goods, brands, orspecific products and accept items only if the goods are available forfree or if the sender agrees to pay. In a further example, the receivermay opt-in to automatically receive offers or products based on a timelimitation. In one example, a receiver may set a preference to receiveoffers for new car insurance for a period of time before the expirationof the current insurance, as the receiver will have selected a new carinsurance provider by that date.

With respect to samples, the opt-in preference setting provides asolution to problems that arise within the samples environment. From thebrand perspective, samples often get delivered to the incorrect addressor to unqualified prospects, or are stolen from the receiver's frontporch or entrance. Consumers are hesitant to voluntarily accept samplesout of privacy concerns for brands or marketing companies having accessto personal information such as a home address. Consumers often declineto share their address information to avoid having their informationsold to other parties and to avoid receipt of an excessive amount ofunwanted, free samples, offers, or coupons. In one embodiment, thepresent system includes a Get a Sample opt-in setting and a Gift aSample opt-in setting. While “Get a Sample” and “Gift a Sample” areterms used to describe the various settings, the names or references mayvary.

In the Get a Sample opt-in setting, a receiver sets his opt-inpreferences to indicate that he is open to receiving a particular typeof sample. A brand or vendor may send him samples of a product directlyor indirectly through a third-party shipping partner to the receiverwithout obtaining the receiver's physical address. Alternatively, thereceiver may select via the opt-in preferences to authorize the systemto share the receiver's address of a brand or vendor offering a desiredproduct sample. The receiver may also select via the opt-in preferencesa time frame during which samples may be received. In the Gift a Sampleopt-in setting, a sender sets his opt-in preferences to indicate that heis wants to send a sample or product to one or more of the sender'sfriends without obtaining the friend's physical address. If therecipient has preferences set that allow for the receipt of such a giftor sample, the system enables the gift or sample to be delivered inaccordance with the receiver's settings. In another embodiment, a usermay receive an offer for a gift or sample, and the system may alert theuser that a friend within his social network has set his preferences toindicate an interest in receiving that gift or sample. The alert may bea notice that the friend is interested in the offer or sample. The usermay elect to send the sample or offer to the friend, or the system mayautomatically determine whether to send the product or offer to thefriend. In this embodiment, the user's friend network is leveraged suchthat an offer to one user may be reasonably distributed across thefriend network. Artificial or machine intelligence may be used todistribute offers or samples across networks within the system.

With these controls, users may find it easy to provide windows in whichthey are open to receiving samples to try new products. For example, auser may easily audition new products within a given time frame whentrying to make a purchasing decision. A receiver 30 may indicate apreference to receive samples of hand soaps within the next month.Brands may then capitalize on that opportunity to send said samples tothe receiver 30. The brands benefit from sending an appropriate sampleto a proactively interested receiver 30, the receiver 30 benefits fromreceiving desired product at the desired time and also benefits fromdoing so anonymously with respect to the brand (i.e., only the addressexchange system 10 knows the receiver's information, the receiver 30 andthe receiver's contact information are not shared with the sender 32).

The controls may also allow receiver-user 30 to manage relationshipswith individuals and/or business senders and to provide opt-inpreferences for third-parties to contact the receiver 30. Preferencesrelated to the relationships can be stored in a database, a distributedledger (i.e., a blockchain), or the like. In one embodiment, thereceiver can accept or refuse incoming mail from a sender. If accepted,the receiver can select the physical address of where the mail is to bedelivered and/or provide specific delivery instructions for each sender,such as hold, forward, and pick-up. In another embodiment, the receivercan select from default options, such as “accept from all,” which may beused where the receiver does not have a phone or email account to accesspreference settings. Another default option may be “never accept,” whichmay be used where the receiver is deceased. The acceptance/refusal andthe delivery preferences are stored in the database. In anotherembodiment, a receiver creates a group based on pre-existing conditionsor user-selected/created conditions. An example pre-existing conditionmay be based on social media connections. In a user-selected/createdexample, the user may create a group within the system and place thesender into the group. In another embodiment, the system can forward thereceiver's address to the business if the receiver has authorizedaddress sharing/update or if the business is authorized to retrieve acurrent address from the system in the user preferences. In a stillfurther embodiment, the receiver 30 may select preferences to opt-in toreceiver offers from a third party that the receiver would like to tryor purchase per the description above. The receiver may set a preferenceto limit the channels of communication through which the third partyseller/brand may contact the receiver. A receiver may set userpreferences to receive digital coupons from select first third partybrand, to receive physical coupons from other third party brands, toreceive phone calls from certain other parties, to receive text messagesfor other third party sellers. The receiver may also restrict contact byday of the week and/or time of day, including a start date and/or an enddate. Any other control/preference settings described throughout theapplication may be stored in a database as described herein.

Within the address exchange system 10 through the permission and privacysetting module 46 the receiver 30 may set the preferences regarding whatinformation is shared with the sender 32 at the time of the transaction.In addition, the receiver 30 may set the preferences regarding whatinformation is shared with the sender 32 before, during, and after thetransaction. For example, the receiver 30 may chose not to share contactinformation with the sender 32 prior to the transaction, but after asuccessful transaction, the receiver 30 may choose to share the contactinformation. In another example, address information is shared withsenders 32 within certain product categories and not shared with senders32 within other product categories. In yet another example, the receivermay choose between options to share some information, share noinformation, share a proxy for the receiver's contact information, suchas a QR code that provides the receiver's contact information to athird-party shipper (e.g., USPS, FedEx, UPS), etc. Those skilled in theart will recognize the range of options that may be made availablethrough the address exchange system 10 and specifically the transactionmanagement services 48 module and the permission setting 46 module.Basically, the receiver 30 decides what information is shared before andafter transaction, including whether the address is shared at all and,in case the receiver 30 chooses not to share the address with the sender32, the payment verification can be authorized through the addressexchange system 10.

The system may also include rapid login/checkout features for brands andecommerce sites. In one example, a receiver or an ecommerce customer mayuse a third-party platform to manage the customer information and how itis or is not shared to each party in the checkout and delivery chain.

For merchants, the third-party platform can provide the customer name,email, phone number, GPS location, or any other information required forcheckout to the merchant or seller. The address provided to the merchantmay be a default address or may be an address specified by the customerto be associated with the specific merchant. The third-party platformmay also provide delivery instructions such as, for example, hold,forwarding address, self-pickup, etc. Further, The third-party platformmay provide the customer's personal information, including thecustomer's delivery address, or the customer's digital ID and/or GPSlocation coordinates. The digital ID may be, for example, an emailaddress, a cell phone number, etc. Accordingly, the merchant may or maynever see the details of the buyer.

On the consumer side, the consumer's contacts list may be passed to themerchant during the checkout or at another time. In another embodiment,the consumer may be able to select a subset from the contacts list toshare with the merchant to send purchases, gifts, samples, offers, etc.If the consumer has multiple addresses in the system, the selected oneor more addresses can be passed through merchant portal and specialdelivery instructions like hold, forward, self-pickup, drone delivery toreal time GPS locations, etc. can be scheduled.

In one example, the system 10 includes an electronic device, such as aportable electronic device embodied in a touchscreen-enabled smartphoneas the user interface 30. However, it is understood that the teachingsprovided may be applied to numerous variations of electronic deviceswith user interfaces 30, including desktop computers, remote controls,etc., as will be recognized by those skilled in the art based on theteachings herein.

As shown in FIG. 1, aspects of the systems described herein arecontrolled by one or more controllers 14. The one or more controllers 14may be adapted run a variety of application programs, access and storedata, including accessing and storing data in associated databases, andenable one or more interactions as described herein. Typically, the oneor more controllers 14 are implemented by one or more programmable dataprocessing devices. The hardware elements, operating systems, andprogramming languages of such devices are conventional in nature, and itis presumed that those skilled in the art are adequately familiartherewith.

For example, the one or more controllers 14 may be a PC basedimplementation of a central control processing system utilizing acentral processing unit (CPU), memory 14 and an interconnect bus. TheCPU may contain a single microcontroller, or it may contain a pluralityof microprocessors for configuring the CPU as a multi-processor system.The memory 14 include a main memory, such as a dynamic random accessmemory (DRAM) and cache, as well as a read only memory, such as a PROM,EPROM, FLASH-EPROM, or the like. The system 10 may also include any formof volatile or non-volatile memory 14. In operation, the memory 14stores at least portions of instructions for execution by the CPU anddata for processing in accord with the executed instructions.

The one or more controllers 14 may also include one or more input/outputinterfaces for communications with one or more processing systems.Although not shown, one or more such interfaces may enablecommunications via a network, e.g., to enable sending and receivinginstructions electronically. The communication links may be wired orwireless.

The one or more controllers 14 may further include appropriateinput/output ports for interconnection with one or more outputmechanisms (e.g., monitors, printers, touchscreens, motion-sensing inputdevices, etc.) and one or more input mechanisms (e.g., keyboards, mice,voice, touchscreens, bioelectric devices, magnetic readers, RFIDreaders, barcode readers, motion-sensing input devices, etc.) serving asone or more user interfaces for the controller 14. For example, the oneor more controllers 14 may include a graphics subsystem to drive theoutput mechanism. The links of the peripherals to the system may bewired connections or use wireless communications.

In one embodiment, the system may assign a unique transaction code, suchas a barcode, a QR code, an RFID code, or the like, to each shippingtransaction that is associated with the delivery details related to thesender, the receiver, and the contents of the shipment and is programmedto share one or more details with each party interacting with theshipment. In one example, a delivery person may receive the shippingaddress but may not access information about the content of the package.Other parties that can utilize the transaction code include U.S. Customsand Border Protection, the shipping company, a delivery service, etc.

In some embodiments, the system may assign a unique item code tofacilitate the automatic purchase, opt-in features, or samplefunctionalities of the system. The unique item code may be a SKU code, aUPC number, a Product Type, or a Produce ID to tangible and non-tangiblegoods. In one example, a vacation package may be assigned a SKU code, a“vacation” as a Product Type, and include travel dates, location, andlevel of service of flight as various Product IDs.

Although summarized above as a PC-type implementation, those skilled inthe art will recognize that the one or more controllers 14 alsoencompasses systems such as host computers, servers, workstations,network terminals, and the like. Further one or more controllers 14 maybe embodied in a device, such as a mobile electronic device, like asmartphone or tablet computer. In fact, the use of the term controller14 is intended to represent a broad category of components that are wellknown in the art.

Hence aspects of the systems and methods provided herein encompasshardware and software for controlling the relevant functions. Softwaremay take the form of code or executable instructions for causing acontroller 14 or other programmable equipment to perform the relevantsteps, where the code or instructions are carried by or otherwiseembodied in a medium readable by the controller 14 or other machine.Instructions or code for implementing such operations may be in the formof computer instruction in any form (e.g., source code, object code,interpreted code, etc.) stored in or carried by any tangible readablemedium.

As used herein, terms such as computer or machine “readable medium”refer to any medium that participates in providing instructions to aprocessor for execution. Such a medium may take many forms. Non-volatilestorage media include, for example, optical or magnetic disks, such asany of the storage devices in any computer(s) shown in the drawings.Volatile storage media include dynamic memory, such as the memory 14 ofsuch a computer platform. Common forms of computer-readable mediatherefore include for example: a floppy disk, a flexible disk, harddisk, magnetic tape, any other magnetic medium, a CD-ROM, DVD, any otheroptical medium, punch cards paper tape, any other physical medium withpatterns of holes, a RAM, a PROM and EPROM, a FLASH-EPROM, any othermemory chip or cartridge, or any other medium from which a controller 50can read programming code and/or data. Many of these forms of computerreadable media may be involved in carrying one or more sequences of oneor more instructions to a processor for execution.

It should be noted that various changes and modifications to theembodiments described herein will be apparent to those skilled in theart. Such changes and modifications may be made without departing fromthe spirit and scope of the present invention and without diminishingits attendant advantages. For example, various embodiments of the methodand portable electronic device may be provided based on variouscombinations of the features and functions from the subject matterprovided herein.

We claim:
 1. A product exchange system comprising: a controller; a datastorage system in communication with the controller; a non-transitorymemory coupled to the controller the non-transitory memory containinginstructions, when executed by the controller, causes the controller toperform the steps of: providing an application programing interface(API) to a first user device; receiving, by the API, a delivery requestfrom the first user device for delivery of an item to a second user;determining, by the API, that the received request comprises deliverydetails for delivery of the item to the second user; based on adetermination, by the API, that the received delivery request comprisesdelivery details for delivery of the item to the second user, generatinga unique transaction code to, associating, by the API, the generatedunique transaction code to a transaction associated with the receiveddelivery request; storing, by the API, the association between thegenerated unique transaction code and the determined delivery details ofthe transaction on the data storage system; acquiring, by thecontroller, preference information of the second user; identifying, bythe controller, one or more parties interacting with the transaction,based on the acquired preference information of the second user;identifying, by the API, one or more subsets of the received deliverydetails; and associating, by the API, the identified one or more subsetswith the identified one or more parties interacting with thetransaction, wherein each party interacting with the transaction hasaccess to one of the identified one or more subsets of the deliverydetails.
 2. The product exchange system of claim 1, wherein the datastorage system stores a physical address associated with the seconduser.
 3. The product exchange system of claim 2, wherein the deliverydetails of the transaction includes a seller providing the item to bedelivered to the physical address of the second user, wherein the one ormore parties interacting with the transaction includes the seller, andwherein a subset of the delivery details associated with the seller doesnot include the physical address of the second user.
 4. The productexchange system of claim 2, wherein the delivery details of thetransaction includes a seller providing the item to be delivered to thephysical address of the second user, wherein the one or more partiesinteracting with the transaction includes the seller, and wherein thecontroller is configured to facilitate delivery of the item to thesecond user without revealing the physical address to the seller.
 5. Theproduct exchange system of claim 1, wherein the delivery detailsincludes a shipping address associated with the second user andinformation about the item.
 6. The product exchange system of claim 1,wherein the plurality of steps includes providing shipment of the item,wherein the one or more parties interacting with the transactionincludes a shipping company that provides shipment of the item.
 7. Theproduct exchange system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of stepsincludes providing delivery of the item, and wherein the one or moreparties interacting with the transaction includes a delivery servicethat provides the delivery of the item.
 8. The product exchange systemof claim 1, wherein the plurality of steps includes appraising the item,wherein the one or more parties interacting with the transactionincludes U.S. Customs and Border Protection that appraises the item. 9.The product exchange system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of stepsincludes collecting taxes on the item, wherein the one or more partiesinteracting with the transaction includes a taxing entity that collectsthe taxes on the item.